Anti-Piracy Follies, Tiny Troll Controls and Future of E-Mail

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of August 5, 2012

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Anti-Piracy Follies

OK here’s our new nominee for dumbest media story of the year.  If there is a better example of missing the point I’m not sure what it is.

If you’ve rented a DVD of a movie over the last 5 years or so you’ve probably seen the anti-piracy message that has been included on many many of them.  It’s supposed to be this trendy edgy look that manages to come off looking like a leftover from the ‘90s that includes lines like “You wouldn’t steal a handbag”.  Handbag?  Really?  Underneath it all was this fairly loud energetic music track.  All to remind you that stealing someone else’s work without paying for it is piracy and a crime.

Well the folks who made that video stole that music.

Sounds too stupid to be true doesn’t it?  But it is.  The composer, Melchior Rietveldt, was paid by a Dutch music rights group for the music to be used one time.  It has appeared on at least 71 commercial DVDs sold in the Netherlands and around the world.  Rietveldt went to the folks at the agancy in charge of paying him royalties for his work and got stonewalled.  So he went to court.  It took 6 years but the courts have agreed that Rietveldt deserves to be paid.

What astounds me is that the companies who put together the DVDs all know better.  Every one of them has a legal department and the first question that any legal department is going to ask in each case is “Do we have the rights to this?”.  At some point somebody flat out lied to a lawyer.  And that’s NEVER a good idea.

The original anti-piracy piece was to be used during a local film festival.  By an anti-piracy group that you would assume knows where the lines are in their own particular area of alleged expertise.  So I guess the real question becomes how are we supposed to take these people seriously ever again?  I’ve said before on this program that I fully support the rights of the artist to be paid for the use of their work.  You would think first in line with that sentiment wold be the folks of the anti-piracy community.

Just amazing. 

Future of E-mail                                                                                                

Microsoft is confusing me.  And this at a time when my feelings for the giant from Redmond Washington were on an upswing.  I’ve been using Windows 7 on my home computer for about half a year now and I really like it.  Unlike some previous upgrades they’ve managed to increase the number of good features on the operating system while keeping the number of new innovative annoyances to a minimum.  So that’s good.

When I saw that they were trying something new with their e-mail client software (known simply as Hotmail to most of us) I was feeling good enough about our relationship to swing over to the new Outlook.com and take a look.  And that’s where the confusion began.

This is being touted as the future of e-mail.  Now that’s an interesting concept because e-mail looks a little long in the tooth these days.  The current crop of teenagers pay it no attention whatsoever.  At the same time it really hasn’t changed much since I started using it two decades ago.

So what’s new and exciting over at Outlook.com?  Well I’m not quite sure to be honest.  I don’t believe I’ve ever had a Hotmail account which is kind of astounding given that at one point I had no less than seven email addresses.  Some friends performed an intervention, I’m better now.  But I do have a Windows ID so I was signed right in.  And what I found was essentially a better looking version of a bunch of Gmail/Google functions.  In fact my Outlook.com email account IS my Gmail account!  I get a calendar that looks like Google’s and a Contacts list like Google’s and Sky Drive which is basically the same as the newly renamed Google Drive formerly Google Docs.  It’s sharp looking but I’m not sure I see the “future of e-mail”.  I see Microsoft finally catching up to Google but that’s as far as I can go.  As always its nice to have all your primary information available in one place.  I’ve never used it but I’ve heard people praising Outlook for years now.  So it seems like it ought to be a logical extension of the franchise.  Maybe I just need to give it a little more time.

At the moment I’m a little miffed that Google is ending it’s iGoogle web service this fall which has been a mainstay of mine for years.  Plus the boost of happiness over Windows 7 means that Microsoft will get the temporary free pass on this one for a little while longer. 

Tiny Troll Controls

The ongoing war against online trolls has taken another step. It’s a tiny step and a rather unconvincing step but it’s slow progress in the right direction.  A direction toward the end of anonymous commenting.

YouTube is the less than courageous corporate giant (YouTube is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Google-plex) that is taking the tiny, timorous step towards a little more civility on the Internet.

If you’ve ever scrolled down into the comments section of a YouTube video you know what I mean.  If you just watch the video and then click away I’d personally recommend you keep doing exactly that.  99% of all comments fall into one of two categories.  The first is the “That’s so cute/cool” category in which you will find mindless repetitious compliments.  The second is the “I hope you die” category which is filled with mindless repetitious hatred.  Both are a waste of time and bandwidth but the second is of greater concern.

Inevitably the second is posted either under the name Anonymous or a screen name designed to shield the mouth breathing moron from being revealed as well the mouth breathing moron that he or she is.

YouTube’s baby step is to ask users to consider using their Google+ identity when commenting or uploading content.  It doesn’t seem likely that our mouth breathing friends will do so but it’s a step in the right direction.

Personally I would simply end anonymous commenting.  Flat out.  And all user names would have to link back to some firm identity.  That way if someone goes completely over the line (like death threats which appear far too commonly) there is some way to track them down.  I know that some folks will shout “Freedom of Expression” at me but I will remind you that such freedom comes with some expectation of personal responsibility.  You want to call some one names you need to the intestinal fortitude to back it up.

Sure there will be people who will get around any rules you create.  But the harder you make folks work at being bad the more of them just give up and walk away.  Let’s try taking a real step towards lowering the population of idiots online.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

July Movies

American Movie - (1999) Imagine Bill and Ted meets "Waiting for Guffman" by way of "Troll 2".  The story of a dreamer who wants nothing more than to make a movie.  Sadly he has no talent for the task and neither does anyone else around him.  Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1999.  The movie is fascinating the same way that "Best Worst Movie" is.  It's a train wreck of delusion meeting reality.  Ultimately it's profoundly sad bordering on the tragic.  In the end it's a wonderful commentary on the role of dreams, their ability to inspire and their devastating ability to destroy us.  Both fascinating and distrubing.
Rating - *** Worth a look

Ghost Rider - (2007) This is your basic teenaged boy movie.  Lots of action, very little intellectual content, usually a fair amount of cleavage (although this one is short on this.  Eva Mendes provides the base level of pulchritude) and a black and white moral sensibility.  The goal of this kind of movie is to elicit as many "Whoa"s and "Cool"s as possible.  So judged by its own standards this is pretty decent little film.  Nicholas Cage does his thing, Sam Elliott does his narrator thing (just like in The Big Lebowski) and Eva Mendes is, well, Eva Mendes.  Looking for some mindless entertainment on a rainy weekend?  This could be that movie.  Otherwise...
Rating - *** Worth A Look

Deja Vu - (2006)  Denzel Washington is on my current list of actors I'll watch in just about anything.  This is a kind of mind bending movie about cops using a computer that allows them to view the past to solve a terrorist bombing.  Except that it's not really that simple.  I liked the concept and I liked the movie overall but about 2/3 of the way through this movie just bogs down at the point when it needs to take off.    You just hit that point where you want the movie to kick into high gear.  It does eventually but it never really catches full speed for me so I was left feeling just a little let down at the end.  A close shot but not a bullseye.  But hey it was Denzel (and the gorgeous Paula Patton).
Rating - *** Worth A Look

Ran - (1985) Time for a little Kurosawa.  OK, the movie is close to 3 hours long so it's a LOT of Kurosawa.  The great Japanese director starts with classic Samurai stories mixes in a good dollop of Shakespeare's "King Lear" and goes roaring off.  This movie is visually stunning, an epic tale told on a epic scale.  But's 3 hours longs (2 hours and 42 minutes for the sticklers)  and even Akira Kurosawa can't resist the urge to put in pointless artistic shots to insure the "epic-ness" of it all.  Is it worth watching?  Absolutely.  But it is also in the category of great movies that I will watch once and never again.
Rating - **** Gotta See (Yes, you really do)

Payback(Director's Cut) - (1999) - This is a weird Mel Gibson crime movie.  His character Porter is betrayed by his wife and friend, shot and left for dead.  The rest of the movie is him trying to get his cut of the loot (and only his cut despite everyone trying to give him more).  I was never quite sure if the movie was supposed to be a black comedy or not.  It dances along the edge of being funny then suddenly there's blood and gore splattered everywhere.There are actually two different versions of this movie.  The original director Brian Helgeland was fired before the movie was complete.  The version released to the theaters had different characters and some different plot points.  This version is the one Helgeland intended.  In the end the movie has a certain fascinating quality to it because you're not quite sure what the hell you're watching.  It's kind of hard to rate for me.  In the end I wouldn't tell you to go out of your way to see it but it's not bad enough to say avoid it either.
Rating - ** Not Impressed

It Happened One Night - (1934)  Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, 5 Oscars, and one of the greatest of the screwball comedies.  What else is there?  Given its age I was amazed at how well it all holds up.  This is a classic movie that both the stars hated while they were filming.  Colbert thought so little of it that even though she was nominated for the Oscar she didn't bother to show up.  They had to run out and snag her at a train station headed out on vacation to accept.  The story is a spoiled rich girl who runs away to marry the man she loves.  Who, like Scarlet's Ashley, isn't worth her time and affection.  She ends falling for the reporter who finds her and wants to publish the story.  Smart, funny and with a heart and soul.  Great movie.
Rating **** Gotta See It

July Books

Birdman by Mo Hayder - This was the debut novel (2000) by Hayder and it became a bestseller.  Since then she has been cranking out best selling novel after best selling novel.  This year the British author snagged an Edgar Allen Poe award for best mystery novel.  So yeah she can write.  Fans of forensic police action will love this one.  Set in London hero Jack Caffery must track down a twisted serial killer whose clues are both shocking and challenging.  If you're looking for a book that will keep you reading and just might keep you up at night as well you'd be well advised to grab this one.
Rating - **** Recommended Read

Brand Like a Rock Star by Steve Jones - Steve Jones spent 3 decades working in the world of rock and roll.  He brings that experience and behind the scenes knowledge to what may be the most fun marketing book of all time.  You'll not only learn basic marketing concepts illustrated by some of the greatest musicians of the last 50 years you also get a great playlist of their music.  The marketing ideas are solid and easy to digest.  I ripped through this book, making notes the whole way.  If you're interested in marketing your business or product and find most marketing books to be tedious grab Brand Like a Rock Star.
Rating **** Recommended Read


The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman - This novella is both a Hugo and Nebula nominee which says plenty right up front.  Gilman uses her 20 Planets universe for this story.  I had never ready anything by her before but the double award nominations lured me in.  Glad I went.  It's a story of the end of  childhood and the less than perfect worlds we can end up in.  Really enjoyed it.
Rating - **** Recommended Read

Not sure if I've mentioned them here before but the publisher Phoenix Pick (an imprint of Arc Manor) should be a bookmark for any science fiction fan.  They are re-publishing some very worthy but overlooked older stuff plus bringing in some new pieces too.  PLUS you get a freebie every month.  And these are top quality freebie novels and other works.  Sign up for their e-mail newsletter and you'll get the monthly note of a new title headed your way.

State of Confusion by Paul Jury  - Started it, stopped, have no interest in picking it back up.
Rating - * Forget About It

Death is a Lonely Business  by Ray Bradbury -  Part of my ongoing tribute this year to one of the greatest American authors IMO.  I'm going to read as much of his stuff as I can lay hands on.  Sadly my local library has a very small collection of titles.  Had not read this one before so I was pleasantly surprised to discover it uses the same characters as A Graveyard for Lunatics which I've noted is a favorite.  This is the book that introduces us to the Crazy, Elmo Crumley, Henry the blind man and the astounding Constance Rattigan.  The main character is a young writer trying to make a living through his craft while living in the decaying Venice California of the early '50's.  A frightening encounter on a trolley with a man who smells of death sends him on the trail of devious murderer who puts all his friends in danger.  The book has all the trademark Bradbury touches plus a nice dose of  Dashiell Hammett.
Rating - **** Recommended Read

Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - This is a short story with an excerpt from one of Zafon's books (The Prisoner of Heaven).  It tells of the origins of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books a central device in his other novels (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel's Game, The Prisoner of Heaven).  I'd never even heard of Zafon before grabbing this as a Barnes & Noble freebie.  He will definitely be on my radar going forward.  The series is intended to be 4 books long and span centuries of time in Spain.  The cemetery bears a slight resemblance to the characters at the end of Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" who are protecting endangered books.  The method is different but the intent is the same.  The books are worldwide best sellers so they will be on my list to find.
Rating - **** Recommended Read

The Entitled - Frank DeFord - Here's the short version - Frank DeFord can write.  Period.  Full stop.  What more do you really need to know?  


OK fine.


This is the story of a journeyman major league baseball manager and his star player who is accused of rape.  The manager sees something that might just reinforce that charge but doesn't prove anything one way or the other.  The story takes you through the process of working out what is right and wrong along the way.  At the same time DeFord brings his formidable vocabulary and voluminous knowledge of sports (writer for Sports Illustrated, sports commentator for NPR, 6 time National Sport Writer of the Year, member of Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters and has won an Emmy and a Peabody) to create a compelling behind the scenes look at big time sports.  Nothing quite like the intersection of a great story and a great writer.
Rating - **** Recommended Read.

Stars Don't Earn Stripes, Olympic Love and New Old People

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of July 30, 2012

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Stars Don't Earn Stripes

We have come upon another moment where I wish I could have been in the pitch session for a new TV series.  The pitch session is where the folks with the bright ideas come in and try and convince the people with the money to back their show.  It’s the moment when you need to be able to sell a concept because that’s probably pretty much the only thing you have.  It’s a high stakes game on both sides.  For the idea people it’s the chance to actually be employed for a little while.  And for the money folks it’s the gamble on whether or not they will make money or just see their investment disappear like water down the toilet.

In this case I would have loved to been in on the pitch session for NBC’s upcoming series “Stars Earn Stripes”.  I’d be willing to bet that there was some mention of the old “Battle of the Network Stars” series that ran from the mid-’70s to the late ‘80s.  This version would involve recognizable names like Dean Cain, Dolvett Quince, Nick Lachey, Picabo Street, Laila Ali and for no apparent reason Todd Palin.  And it would be co-hosted by General Wesley Clark!  It’s a name droppers delight.

If you haven’t heard of this show you might be puzzled by why the co-host is a former Army General.  Well that’s where this gets a little uncomfortable for me.  Go to the web site and you’ll figure it out quickly.  The stars are shown carrying AK-47s and firing a .50 calibre machine gun from the turret of a Humvee.  Yes, this is war as entertainment.

And suddenly I’ve got a problem.  Despite the fact that I played soldier as a child war is not a game.  The physical training that our Armed Forces go through is not just to improve their physical health.  It ‘s to make sure that they are able to do the incredibly difficult job we sometimes ask them to do and have some chance of coming back alive.  I come from a Navy family, my dad was on active duty aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean the day I was born.  Even though he served in peace time he still lost a friend during his tour.  While I’ve never served I have great respect for those who have and are.

Making what they do some kind of game show for celebrities strikes me as disrespectful.  Trying to pretend that war is a game for our evening amusement strikes me as rather sick.  Stars don’t earn stripes.  Veterans do.  I’ll take a pass on this one.

Olympic Love                                                                                                


Well I guess I should have known better. a couple weeks ago I noted my disenchantment with the commercialization of the Olympics and the insane level of enforcement that was going on in the U.K. during the Games.  It just felt like the wonder of the Games that so enthralled me as a child had disappeared.

Of course all it took was a couple minutes of competition and I was hooked.  Over the weekend while I was visiting family they flipped on the Olympics.  Long distance cycling, boxing, volleyball, both beach and indoor, water polo and I was hooked.  I saw some of the major sports too - gymnastics and swimming mostly.  I’ve never been a fan of basketball and I’m certainly not one of the current version of Olympic hoops so I skipped the kinda sorta Dream Team.  

In the end what I love about the Olympics is learning about sports that I don’t normally watch.  It was my uncle and me watching water polo and trying to figure out what the green line and the red line projected on the water meant.  We thought maybe you couldn’t take a shot from outside the green area but almost immediately somebody did.  Never did figure it out.  Or trying to understand the fine points of libero play in volleyball.  The real allure of the Olympics is the novel and unknown aspects of sports we only see every four years.  It is the amazing fluidity of swimmers and gymnasts who make the incredible seem easy.  It is the stories of the athletes who still have to make amazing journeys for their brief moment in the spotlight.

I am still not convinced that this modern, commercialized and professionalized version of the Olympics is really superior to the vision of the Games immortalized in the movie “Chariots of Fire”.  There are flaws in that version as well but there was a simpler joy that I think some of the games may have lost.  At the same time there are few more compelling stories than watching an Olympic event where the upstart catches the champion and becomes the new champion.

So I will continue to watch the Olympics for the things that make them great and pray that the crass commercialism never truly spoils the Games.

New Old People

This one is going out for some of my younger friends and family.  Seems to mostly affect folks around or just past the age of 30.  So if that describes you I have a little wisdom I’d like to share with you all.

I think you’re officially becoming old people.

Here’s why - I’m starting to hear people in that age bracket follow in the footsteps of their parents and grand parents.  It’s that pivotal moment when you turn on the radio or hear something being played by a member of the generation younger than you are and you say “That’s not music!”.  In this case the offending genre is something called Dubstep.

Now I’m a sort of mid-level old guy so I had to go look Dubstep up.  According to the folks at Wikkipedia (the fount of all knowledge) Dubstep is an electronic dance music with a heavy bass and drum line, tight production, clipped samples and limited vocals.  Literally means nothing to me but there you are.  It’s the hot new thing and it is driving some folks around the bend.

Of course what’s funny is that it’s just the latest in a long line of musical stylings that have branded “not music”.  Rap music - not music.  Rock and Roll - not music.  Jazz - not music.  Igor Stravinsky’s classical piece “The Rite of Spring” was considered so awful by some folks at its debut that an actual riot broke out in the theater.

It’s like a rite of passage.  That moment when you are confronted with the latest popular movement in the Arts and you just can’t control yourself any more.  Suddenly all of your forebears, your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents come bubbling up in outrage and revulsion.  It’s an unmistakable sign.  For every generation there will be the inevitable attempt to explain why it’s different this time.  That YOUR music was revolutionary or evolutionary or just way cool but this - this just isn’t music.

You might as well hang a sign around your neck that says “I’m old”.  It’ll be OK, trust me.


Call that the View From the Phlipside.